Jayco looks to the future

Australia’s biggest RV manufacturer is not resting on its laurels, with dozens of updates, new products and industry ‘firsts’ expected to be rolled out from Jayco’s 55,000sq.m mega-factory in coming months.

Building around 9000 RVs annually, Jayco dominates the Australian RV manufacturing sector with around 45 per cent market share.

But according to Jayco Australia boss Gerry Ryan, who has more than 30 staff working in engineering, research and development roles at the company’s head office in Dandenong, Victoria, the 37-year-old company is constantly scouring the world and looking for new ways to improve or add to existing products to keep ahead of both local and imported competition.

Heading the list of new products is Jayco’s first independent off-road suspension due for release in early 2014. Developed and tested over the past two years, the new independent set-up will cater for growing demand for ‘rough road’ models, while increasing efficiencies by bringing another aspect of production in-house.

“We’ve halved the price of (current) independent suspension systems, in fact the US want to buy the system,” Ryan said at a Jayco media event this week.

Ryan said Jayco is also working on a next-generation range of models with airbag suspension.

Having recently adopted the latest Euro-style decor, Jayco interiors are in line for further modernisation, with self-closing drawers and a hi-tech rangehood with digital touchscreen instead of traditional buttons, soon to be offered on selected Jayco models as well as Jayco’s RV retail accessories arm Coast to Coast RV.

While domestic-style washing machines, wine coolers and dishwashers are now commonly found in caravans, Jayco is set to be one of the first to introduce a clothes dryer on some models.

In a bid to incorporate more of the latest, lightweight European van design and construction (Ryan is a regular visitor to Germany's Dusseldorf Caravan Salon and cites Germany’s ultra-modern Hobby caravans as a major influence), Jayco is currently “working on a new moulding” that joins a new ‘sandwich’ roof with the walls.

The new process should make models like its Sterling fibreglass caravan “stronger” and “easier to build”.

Jayco manufacturing manager, Christian Ryan, said Jayco is also working on a more streamlined, ‘one piece’ panel construction method for its more traditional budget, aluminium Starcraft vans, similar to its composite wall construction.

The company’s hot-dipped galvanised Endurance chassis is also being re-designed to strip weight, incorporating C-channels and other weight-saving measures used by European manufacturers like Al-Ko. However, don’t expect an all-aluminium chassis like that recently introduced by Melbourne’s G&S Chassis.

“Have a look at how many truck bodies have got aluminium... aluminium hasn’t got the give steel has, it doesn’t have the flex,” says Ryan.

Recently hired industrial design graduate Heather Barrett, who is doing a Phd at Monash University on lightweight materials and applications, has also been tasked to look at ways of reducing weight and improving aerodynamics on future Jayco models.

“Heather is working on some (composite) materials, we’re talking about fibreglass roof bows, fibreglass wall struts, it’s a whole new revolution. We’ve got people searching around the world on technology,” says Ryan.

“We’re starting to look at (aerodynamics) in the future of the caravan. That’s going to be a major player for what we’re doing”.

However, despite purchasing a couple of American-built Airstream vans recently for promotional use at Ryan’s Michelton Winery, don’t expect a similarly curvaceous van in Jayco’s immediate future.

“The problem is we can build an aerodynamic caravan and cut it back (at the front), but what people want to buy it? Because they want the big cupboards inside...”

“I always say it’s an evolution, not a revolution, it’s evolving a product.”

A full carbon-fibre caravan is also out of the question, though hi-tech composite technology developed at Ryan's majority-owned Global Creatures Productions (the Melbourne-based animatronics specialists behind the King Kong and Walking with Dinosaurs productions) is expected to filter down to Jayco products.

And more RV variants and layouts are also coming, despite Jayco already boasting one of the most comprehensive RV ranges in the country -- eight at last count including the latest line of fifth-wheelers.

Not surprisingly, with Ryan’s involvement in the horse racing industry (he owns Melbourne Cup-winning Americain as well as this year's favourite Puissance de Lune) a toy hauler-style caravan for horse owners, perhaps dubbed the “Troy Hauler” is on the cards.

“It’s been done in America and Europe. Horse eventing is a big market, they’re paying big money (for horse-carrying caravans), up to $250,000 or $300,000 (in some cases),” he says.